Headlights
by in the eyes of the beholder
Summary: Ten years Harry's been living a normal life away from the magical world. now he drives a cab and leads a perfectly normal life until a pair of headlights changes everything. Recovery, reunions, reconciliation and rehabilitation. Everything will change.
1. Chapter 1

I don't own HP

Xx

Harry sighed as he reclined in his cab. He was on night shift again and it had been a long night ferrying people around London and snow was falling lightly covering the city. He reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out his pack of fags and his lighter and lit one up. Taking a deep drag he leaned his head back against the headrest of the seat and relaxed. The digital display in console read four fifteen in faint green letters. Another hour and he could head back to the garage for shift change and go home for the day.

It had been over ten years since he was forced from the wizarding world and he honestly couldn't say that he missed it much. Not to say that the years had been kind to him. No, they hadn't been all bad either. Sure he could count the two years he spent at the Dursleys' as close to actual hell with the only bright side being his cousin Dudley, of all people.

Dudley… was an oddity. For most of his early life his cousin was a spoiled bully whose favorite past time was "Harry hunting." Somehow being away from Harry for most of the year and saving him from dementors had turned Dudley from Harry's biggest bully to Harry's biggest defender. They even shared a flat together after Harry was thrown out of the Dursleys' by his Aunt Petunia when he turned seventeen. Harry hated to say it but Dudley was probably his best mate. He was still sharing a flat with Dudley but ever since Dudley's fiancee Marry moved in with them Harry had been flat hunting. He even bought them two tickets to that big American music festival and a month at a resort in California for them as a wedding gift - one of the few times Harry had flaunted his wealth in the last few years.

Harry actually didn't need to live with his cousin. He didn't even need to work, honestly he just did it to give himself something to do. He was, after all, enormously wealthy just from what his parents left him. Dudley had insisted though. Arguing that Harry would just sulk and spend all of his time 'acting like an angsty burk' if he wasn't there to 'kick em' in arse when he needed it.' He was actually grateful to Dudley for that. He had to admit, after they snapped his wand Harry had been thrown into a massive state of depression. Seeing his holly and phoenix feather wand broken before him was like having a chunk of his own flesh cut out with a butter knife. Dumbledore just stood there doing nothing. Then… he had left, sent back to the Dursleys' without so much as a 'by your leave.' Funnily enough being expelled from Hogwarts and having his wand snapped didn't actually mean he was banned from the magical world. He still had to go into Diagon Alley occasionally to sort out business with Gringotts or buy some broom polish, though he almost never went in without being completely hidden by his invisibility cloak. Wouldn't do to be seen when a madman had apparently been out for his blood.

It was funny. At first he had been scared that old Voldy would come through like a hurricane and sweep him away at some point. Voldemort never did. He had seen… felt rather, through his scar that Voldemort was content to leave him alone. Harry no longer having a wand and not learning magic meant that old Voldy no longer considered him a threat. Funny how that worked out. Last he had heard, Voldemort had left the British Isles. He was off terrorizing Wizarding China, for some reason.

Harry was brought out of his thoughts as his cab's radio crackled to life. "Harry? You awake?" Anne's distinctive Scottish brogue cut through the static. Anne was one of the dispatchers who usually worked night shifts and whose voice kept him company during the long nights.

He leaned forward and pressed the button on the mic to reply. "Barely, but I'm hanging in there for now."

"Good to hear," Anne said. "Up for a last minute fare?" she asked.

"Sure." Harry cracked his neck trying to relieve some tension. "Where at?"

"The Natural History Museum " Anne said.

Perfect. If he drove just right he should be back at the garage by five fifteen and be homeward bound by five forty-five. "Got it." He sat up in his seat, put the cab in drive and slowly pulled out into the illuminated streets of London flicking his fag out the window as he did.

"All right, feel free to head back after you're done, yeah?" Anne told him.

I didn't take much time for Harry to pull up out in front of the museum. The woman who called for him was waiting outside the fence looking around nervously. Harry thought she looked kinda familiar with the way her satchel bulged and weighed her down. Harry grimaced at the thought. He hadn't seen anyone from Hogwarts in years and he doubted he'd run into any of them at four AM on the A4. The woman waved him down and he pulled up right in front of her. She settled into the back seat with her bag tucked safely into her side and began rummaging through it.

"Where to, Miss?" Harry asked in what he called his 'cabby voice.' It was a good mix of polite, tired and just a dash of condescending

The woman paused in her pursuit of whatever was in her bag for the briefest of moments before shaking her head and resuming her search. "Islington," she said and gave him the address of her flat. Harry faltered as he reached for the shift. Her voice had caught him off guard. She sounded so… familiar. He shook his head. There's no way he'd run into her out here. Especially not on the A4. Harry put the cab in gear and pulled out onto the road for the relatively short drive to the woman's flat.

Harry's gaze flicked back at the woman in the backseat. He caught her glancing up at him through the rearview mirror. She would look up, frown, bite her lip, shake her head and look away In a very familiar way. Almost like… never mind. Harry sighed, it had been a long time since he had thought about his old school mates. After he had been ostracized from the wizarding world he hadn't had so much as a postcard from them. So much for house loyalty, ay?

Soon enough they pulled up to the front of the woman's building, which turned out to be a towering homage to Britain's love of being packed together like rats on one big sinking ship. The only difference being these rats aren't smart enough to jump. I told her the price on the meter and she slipped a hand full of fivers through the little window in the back of the cab. "You're going to have to wait a moment while i get your change," Harry told the woman. She slipped out of the cab and walked to the driver's side window. Harry handed her the change, all the while doing his best to avoid looking at her face. He was about to put the car in gear he heard her speak. "Harry?" the woman's voice was almost a hoarse whisper.

… _shit_.

Harry finally glanced up into the woman's face to confirm his fears. There, staring back at him, was the face of his best friend for many years. Harry was surprised how much her features had softened and changed since he had last seen her but was still very much the same Hermione he knew right down to her soft brown eyes. "Hey," he said lamely. "How've you been, 'Mione?" the next thing he knew he was struck by a bushy-haired rocket as she launched herself through the window and wrapped her arms around him in a tight hug. Harry awkwardly patted her shoulder.

She pulled back and held him at arm's length through the window. It was only then that he noticed the tears in her eyes. Tears, he noted, that were quickly replaced with confusion then anger as her hair seemed to bristle around her. "Harry James Potter!" then she began to stutter furiously. "You unbelievable ass!"

That threw him for a bit of a loop.

"Ten years. Ten years and you haven't returned a single one of my letters!." her voice held back something. He knew it was there but couldn't tell quite what it was.

Harry was more than a little confused. "Letters? What letters? I haven't gotten a letter from the wizarding world in years, Hermione." It was the truth though technically he still received the odd letter from Gringotts.

Hermione's brows knitted in confusion. Before she shook her head as if to clear her thoughts. "Harry, what are you doing?"

Harry cocked an eyebrow. "Working," came his rather blunt reply, gesturing to the interior of the cab.

Hermione gave him an incredulous expression. If he was anyone else he might have thought she was having an aneurysm. Maybe she was. "No that's not…" Hermione began before stopping herself and taking a deep breath and looking him in the eyes. "Just… come upstairs for some tea." She looked almost as tired as he felt in that moment.

"I can't," came Harry's short reply. "Not allowed to leave the cab alone," he explained. Hermione looked like she was about to interject so he quickly added. "Also i've been on shift for over twelve hours. I'm sorry, Hermione but I'm bloody well knackered."

Hermione's lips soured. "Oh no," she started. "You're not getting out of this that easily. Do you have a phone?" Harry nodded and she held out her hand. "Give it here."

Harry had a dilemma. He could give Hermione his phone and thus have contact with the world which scorned him again, or drive away like a coward and pretend this never happened. Though if he was being honest he didn't really have a choice. Hermione, if she was anything like how he remembered her, would stop at nothing to track him down and considering she now had the name of the company he worked for there would be no stopping her.

With that bit of mental gymnastics out of the way, he calmly handed over his phone and waited as Hermione put her contact info into it and his into hers. If he were honest with himself none of this was sitting right with him. The whole affair was beginning to make him a bit queasy.

A few minutes later he was driving away phone in hand and mind racing down every rabbit hole and scenario it could muster in its limited capacity. Maybe… maybe that's why he didn't see the lorry until it slammed into the front of his cab. He wouldn't remember until much later. But the one thing he'll always remember were those damn fluorescent headlights.


	2. Chapter 2

I don't own HP

Xx

Harry Groaned. His head and body felt like lead and he could barely move. Had he gone drinking last night? His throat was so sore. Of all the hangovers he had ever had this must be the worst of them. Ok Harry pull yourself together. Time to get up. Slowly he opened his right eye. His left was so swollen he couldn't open it. Did someone punch him? How much had he had to drink last night? Where was he anyway? The ceiling wasn't familiar at all. To white, to sterile almost like a… hospital.

Shit.

Harry tried to sit up, only for a sharp pain to shoot through his hip. He fell back onto the bed gasping for air. What the hell was that? He reached his hand down to where he felt the pain and felt a large plastic covering over his hip and thigh. He could feel small staples under the covering. Bloody hell, what happened? His pinky touched something plastic. He reached for it and lifted it up to his good eye. It was a remote for the bed. The remote had a lot of buttons and pictures on it that looked like someone in a bed so he hit the up button and felt the back of his bed begin to rise. effectively putting him into a sitting position.

Harry took in the room around him. There in the corner reclined in a chair was the big D himself, his cousin Dudley. He looked disheveled. His hair was sticking out weird and his shirt was wrinkled. He was snoring away. Harry found it funny how much he could look like Vernan and yet nothing like the man. He was still a big bloke but nowhere near as fat as he used to be. It was probably due to marry making a lot of vegetable dishes for him.

"Harry!" came a familiar voice from the door. Marry came rushing into the room from the door to his room. Marry reminded him a lot of Mrs Weasley, She was the mothering type through and through. Also her bright red hair and the fact she was a little bigger than average reminded him of the matron of the Weasley house. "Dudley wake up! Harry's awake." she threw her purse at dudley causing him jump in surprise.

Dudley threw himself from the chair and was standing at Marrys side in an instant. "Harry!" he said. "Bloody hell mate. It's good to see you awake" he reached over and grabbed a plastic mug with a straw in it. "Here, drink this." he held the mug near his mouth and harry gratefully drank from it.

His thirst quenched he leaned back on his bed. "Thanks. What happened, how long was I out?" he asked.

"About a day." Marry told him. "You were in a car accident. From what we were told the boy was drunk and slammed into you head on." she produced a washcloth and began wiping away some of the dirt from face. Damn, he figured he was hurt but he didn't know how bad and when he asked marry gave him those sad eyes you give to an injured animal. "I don't know the technical terms but... basically your hip was sheared and your pelvis was destroyed. You broke your wrist, toes and fractured your ankle. But those are minor all things considered. You were in surgery for about nine hours."

Harry was floored. He gently removed the hospital blankets to see the damage. His right hand was in a brace of some kind and his left foot was in some type of boot that cut off just below his knee. He couldn't see it but he could feel a covering going from his mid outer thigh stretching up halfway across his rear. "You're luck mate." Dudley started. "We almost lost you. I saw pictures of the crash. Your cab was mangled."

"What happened to the boy who hit me?" Dudley and Marry shared a glance.

After a long pause dudley finally spoke up. "He's fine." the bitterness in Dudleys voice was palpable, a deep scowl on his face. " not a scratch on 'im."

"Enough of all this negative talk!" Marry chirped as she clapped her hands. "Let's get you something to eat."She disappeared from his vision for a bit before returning with some plastic containers. Harry smiled, Mary's meals could give Mrs. Weasley a run for her gallions. It was probably one of the reasons Dudley was so enamored with the girl.

"Anne came bye while you were out," Dudley told him with a grin. "Good lookin' bird that one."

That earned him a punch and a scowl from Marry. not that this fazed him in the least. 

"Frank, John and Big Al came by to." Dudley pointed to the window seal where a few cards and candy sat."Al said not to worry about the cab anything. You should have seen 'im. Right terrifying that bloke. Company's taking care of everything. Man was on a bloody warpath when he heard you got hurt." yeah that sounded like Al. Albert "Big Al" Harden may be a bit of a hard ass when it came to running things but mess with his drivers and you'd better watch out. It was something he always appreciated about the old Vet. "he was at the EU before me and Mare could get there. Shouting and ordering, taking care of paperwork n' the lot."

A nurse made her way into the room during Dudleys story and injected something into his IV. A warmth passed up his arm and through his entire body. He didn't know what she gave him but damn was it great. His body felt like it was floating away from him. "There was another woman here too. Came with you in the Ambulance. Said her name was Hermione." through his drug induced haze he smiled at them. Hermione came to? That was real nice of her. "She left a few hours ago. Something about needing a shower and a change of clothing."

"Nice girl too." Marry piped in. "said she knew you when you were younger. Said you went to school together." Awe that was nice of Hermione. Though he did wonder about the look Dudley gave him. Awe well. Questions for later he supposed as he let the drugs guide him into unconsciousness.

Xx

Pain. Pain was a funny thing with Harry. Something he had an aversion to and seemingly an attraction to. Not in a masochistic sense mind you. More in that ever since he was a lad pain seemed to find him. So matter how fast he ran where he hid or how careful he was wherever he went pain was sure to find him. He thought that with getting expelled and old tom no longer dogging his every step would allow him some respite. But no, it seemed that he was destined to be familiar with pain all his life. So he did what any sensible person would do. Or at least what he thought he should do. He embraced and accepted the pain. It seemed like the logical thing to do. Pain was, after all, temporary. Harry had accepted this truth from a young age. Of course back then all he was familiar with was physical pain.

Over the years he had discovered various new types of pain that didn't fit in with his acceptance of pain as he understood it. Take emotional pain for example. For a long time he never understood or even realized what this pain was until his eleventh birthday. When hagrid, the lovable half giant that he was, had given Harry a scrapbook with pictures of his parents. He was sure hagrid had intended this to be something that would make him happy and in a way it had. But the smiling faces of his parents, grandparents, Sirius and Remus had brought with it a new form of pain that he was unfamiliar and unequipped to deal with. It wasn't the sharp pain of a cut. The tenderness of a bruise or sting of a burn. It was an ache. A deep longing and sadness gripped his stomach and throat and squeezed with a debilitating pressure. Like the hand of a wraith. Cold and invisible. A pain that was not physical and was not able to be ignored. A pain that demanded his attention. And while eventually he was able to be distracted and move the pain to far from the front of his mind that didn't mean it simply went away like his physical pain.

Maybe it was the fact that emotional pain was few and far in between that was the problem. In his like he had only four very distinct causes of emotional pain. The first was the scrapbook from hagrid. Another was the loss of his wand at fifteen. The fourth was the death of his godfather Sirius. Finding family and hope after so many years had attached him quickly to a man he barely knew. And then to find out only a year after his expulsion that the man had died defending something for that damn headmaster. After finding out not from Dumbledore but gringotts when they sent him a letter about sirius's will. Had sent the teen into such a downward spiral that it had taken Dudley months and a lot of forced outing with his cousin to finally get him into a stable emotional state.

So that brings him back to now. Lying in a hospital bed staring at another form of emotional pain as she sat on a chair at the side of his bed with her bushy brown hair splayed across the right side of his bed like a renaissance halo. His hand clutched gently in hers as she slept. It was definitely his former best friend. She was also a source of great pain for him. All due to a small moment they had shared before they parted ways at kings cross for the last time.

Harry had been growing close to hermione throughout his fourth year. Nothing major really. But it was the fact that she stuck by him through all the harassment that meant so much more than she could ever know. Through all of skeeters articles. All of the help she gave him during the tasks. Then seeing her at the ball with krum and the vicious jealousy he felt when he saw her with him. Hell he still had a scar on his hand from when he had decked Ron after he made her cry that night. Then finally it all came to a head when she had kissed him in the compartment right before they had left kings cross. Her promise to write him and talk about everything. Then the abandonment he felt when he hadn't heard from her for ten long years.

Harry winced as pain shot up from his hip again and he shifted slightly to the right to pull some pressure off of it. Hermione stirred as he did this and slowly lifted her head off of the bed. As soon as she noticed he was awake again she was out of her chair and standing. "Harry!" she practically screamed. "Are you feeling alright? Do you need anything? Water? Should i get a nurse?" the questions flew from her mouth in rapid succession. Something his drug addled mind was slow to discern.

"No." he replied. "I'm fine. Just a little groggy I guess." Harry stretched his neck a bit. His muscles felt way more stiff than they had during his brief bout of consciousness the day before. "Have you seen my dudley anywhere?"

"Yes. they just left for your flat to get some things and I said I'd watch you." Hermione started fidgeting with the hem of her jumper. Something he remembered she did often when she was stressed or nervous back at school. Well it was good to see somethings never change at least. As the silence stretched between them it became increasingly awkward. What do you say to a person you haven't seen in a decade? Especially after you nearly died minutes after seeing them again. To be fair, that last bit wasn't strictly out of character for him all near death experiences considered.

"I'm so sorry Harry." he looked at her then. Her eyes were brimming with tears. "I tried to get you to St. mungos but you were so wrapped up in the metal of the car. I froze. Then there were so many muggles and police around that i didn't know what to do." she was crying now. Even now after all these years he still hated to see her cry.

"It's alright. Really." he gave her hand a reassuring squeeze. "Besides i prefer it this way. The wizarding world kicked me out remember?" he gave her a weak smile.

Hermione sighed and sat back down in her chair. "I know. They shouldn't have. We we're all really upset when they did. Then you just vanished. Dumbledore said it was for the best in a way. Then you never wrote us back when we would write to you and we all just figured you had turned your back on the wizarding world as a whole and didn't want to hear from us."

Well that didn't make much sense. He desperately wanted to hear from his friends for years. He never knew what to think for awhile. "Hermione i did write you. Hedwig just always came back with the mail undelivered." she scowled at that but at least she wasn't crying anymore though her cheeks were still a little red. It was her 'i have a really important thought' face.

Hermione stood up and pulled out her wand. Harry eye'd her suspiciously. He had developed an aversion to wizards when they had their wands out since he had no wand of his own. "Hermione?" came his half hearted warning.

"It's alright Harry i'm just going to check a few things." she began to wave her wand in little intricate shapes and patterns. None of which he had any hope of recognizing. Eventually she stopped. "You have a mail ward over you." she said.

"How do you know?" Harry asked. He was a little curious since he hadn't been around magic in a few months.

"I work as a curse breaker for the museum. It's kinda my job to know." Hermione told him.

Harry grinned at her. "Still as bloody brilliant now as you always were." a bright blush lit up across Hermione's face.

"Prat." she chided lightly. "I just tell you, you have an illegal ward around you and the first thing you do is compliment me?"

Harry's grin widened a bit. Yes, this was definitely his Hermione. "Alright. So how did it get there?"

"Probably Dumbledore." the silence returned at the mention of the old man.

"What ever happened to him?" Harry asked after a few minutes.

"He died." her eyes were downcast as she said this. "It was about six months after we graduated seventh year. He died from a combination of some really dark curses." she was fidgeting with the hem of her jumper again.

Silence descended on the pair as Harry took the time to process what she said. "So… what happened to Ron?" he asked, a little desperate to change the subject.

"He's doing really well, actually. He's getting married next year." Ron was engaged? Had hell frozen over and he not noticed? She noticed his slightly dumbfounded look and grinned. "He's marrying an american witch he met while working for interpol, of all things."

"Interpol has a wizarding branch?" Harry asked incredulously. "And Ron works there?"

Hermione nodded with a small smile. "He became an auror right after graduation, specialized in tracking and investigative work. Ron got involved with a case interpol was working. He wouldn't tell me the details but he got offered a job shortly after. Even lived in Lyon for a time." Harry was really impressed. To think the lazy git he knew could grow to become a damn international investigator. All the while all he had managed was driving a cab. "Can I… can I tell him? That I found you, I mean."

In retrospect this might have been classified as a bad idea. But painkillers, especially muggle painkillers and morphine, are really bad things to make to decisions under.


End file.
